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I've only ever had good things to say about the new Night Raven. The original was one massive, awesome toy, but as it always seemed more of a bomber than a fighter, I'd always thought it was a bit of a mis-match as Cobra's answer to the Joes Skystriker (now if they'd ever given the Joes a bomber as well...I'd have been one happy camper!) The new version comes of as much more of a fighter jet type, and I'm glad to have it. In my mind, both versions exist - one's a dedicated bomber and one's a fighter jet. Now if only I could find an affordable replacement for my vintage Night Raven...

This week at TVandFilmtoys.com, Errex reviewed the Reactive Impact Armor Duke. This is the outfit that he spends a lot of the film in, so I'm glad to see his pictures. He's really putting me to shame on the GI Joe review. (Great job, dude!)

Found the then-and-now Battle Bear/Whatever It's Called Now set. It was on an endcap in electronics. Not a bad deal; I need the classic BB, didn't have the new one, and the movie Snow Job looks like a simple customization into a Frostbite figure.

I found one each of Night Adder, Red Fang Ninja, and Charbroil today, which I got, as well as two of the absurd Arctic Threat Storm Shadow, which I passed on, at Wal-Mart. So they exist, too. Also took advantage of the BOGO sale at K-Mart (whose prices have gone down, curiously) to get a Crimson Neo Viper and Neo Viper Commando, mostly for the weapons (though I'll use the figures). Also saw a hideous Snake Eyes vs Storm Shadow WM exclusive with an Arashikage temple, which I hadn't heard of, and which looked like vomit.

Air Raid: Haven't opened, since I want some Cobra stickers to make the "Sky Sweeper" a proper blue Firebat, but he looks like a straight-up, 100% repaint of Resolute Duke with a parachute accessory. Having three Resolute Dukes from the 5-packs I picked up, he's downright boring.

Rollbar: Looks like a repaint of Airborne, perhaps with one or two switched-out parts. Not bad; it's a good mold, but nothing to write home about.

Beach Head: Surprisingly, a nice figure.... I didn't care about yet another Beach Head. I'm not sure off-hand what his makeup is; all re-used parts, but I haven't compared him to my other Beach Heads, and think most parts came from other figures. With his coloration, though, I think he will make a good custom Kamakura, based more on the Devil's Due look than any existing Kamakura figure.

Crimson Neo-Viper: I got him more for the yari, coral snake, and other cool accessories than the figure himself. And he was loaded with them. Strangely, he can't hold even half of them, and has no holsters or backpack to store things. I'm going to detail him with black and white paint, and display him only with his two axes, because he's going to be a batcrap insane looney.

Viper Commando: Totally different headsculpt than the other Neo-Vipers, with a noggin that looks more like a skull. Some bone-colored paint will make this guy look pretty cool, but he needs a less high-tech weapon, methinks. (Remember, in my Joe-verse, all these ROC Neo-Vipers are homicidal maniacs with heavily customized skull-themed armor.)

Night Adder: I love the tats. This guy's vest is not going back on him... unless I get a second. The Ice Viper head (sans visor) looks a tad strange on him without the vest, though, and I think I might swap the ROC (Resolute) Roadblock head if the skin tone matches. The sculpt is nice, but the joints in the elbows show a bit too much. Right now, I've got him going medieval, with a shotgun and his dog. (I might paint the dog, since he's the second Cobra dog who looks just like Junkyard.)

Charbroil: Gotta say, this guy's a disappointment. He looks massively better than the original, and is a sharp-looking figure, but he uses too much of the Blowtorch mold and accessories, IMHO, to have the same specialty. The head is the helmet from the 5-pack Resolute Duke, with a metallic silver Cobra Commander (?) head glued underneath. While it looks cool, it's weird to not have a removable helmet on a Joe.

Red Fang Ninja: A weird kitbash, to be sure. The body and head of a Resolute Cobra Trooper, with ROC Neo-Viper arms and legs, ROC (Resolute) Firefly's goggles, ROC Storm Shadow's swords and scabbards, and a vest of unknown origin (possibly new). Mostly, it works surprisingly well together, though the scabbard backpack sits way too high on his back for it to work. I'm using mine as a Night Creeper sniper, so I've taken his swords, and he's got a sniper rifle and silenced Uzi, along with a Firefly backpack I'm going to paint to match. He looks much better that way.

Snow Job: I thought this was ROC Frostbite with a new head just for the Target pack, but I was getting my "ROC ice-based vehicles I'm only slightly interested in" pilots confused, and he appears to be a straight re-release of the ROC Snow Job (who I'd thought was Frostbite--I haven't really paid attention to there being two ice vehicles for ROC and only remembered seeing a figure called Frostbite with what looks like a Beach Head head). This is a surprisingly nice figure, and I love the removable hood. I'm going to paint the beard and eyebrows on mine black, though, to make a modern Frostbite, since I display ROC figures as characters and support crew for my 25th Anniversary figures, and I already have that Snow Job.

I hadn't even looked at Air Raid's filecard. Why re-name him, when Airborne seems to be a usable name?

My Night Adder had dark tattoos. Very dark. I wasn't going to pass on him to search for another. Sadly, the skin tone is several shades darker than Roadblock, so that headswap won't work, as I'm not sure of matching the tone. I might grab a ROC Heavy Duty once those are on clearance at Ross in a month or two, since I think he's pretty dark, too.

Red Fang looks massively better with guns. The scabbard backpack was especially poorly thought-out, as there's no way anyone would carry two swords so high on their back.

I would've been happier had they dropped the ninja (seriously, another one????...Larry Hama didn't molest any one at Hasbro did he?), and made him Blackout.

Oh, wait, confused, rechecked in the forrums at joebattlelines...Air Raid and Roll Bar have the same file name, so they're the same person. This is the reverse of the Altitude/Ripcord/Free Fall debacle.

I found a City Strike Snake Eyes today so I picked it up. I'll grab any Resolute figures that make into the line.

Also saw the WM exclusive Heatseeker emplacement and Surveillance Port. No sign of the one I'd probably would've bought, the Outpost Defender. Also didn't see the Laser Artillery Bunker. I was tempted to get the Surveillance Port as a replacement for my vintage one that has a couple broken parts.

The red Cobra stealth fighter (Aero Viper?) looks really cool too. I've been seeing that one show up in greater numbers in the last week or so.